Thursday, May 12, 2016

DIY Around the World Award Trip

I cashed in about 250,000 miles and flew around the world
last month. The trip was four one way
awards, not a formal around the world award ticket. I feel like it gave me
better value (way cheaper) and more flexibility (could book on different
alliances). With American’s devaluation
staring me down, I decided to redeem almost all my AAdvantage miles on an epic adventure.

Thanks For The Motivation

I went DEN-DFW-SYD-AKL in business class for about 65,000
American miles. Premium cabin award
space to Australia is very difficult to find, so the DFW-SYD seat I found drove
the timing of the trip. From there I
flew AKL-SYD-PER on QANTAS with 17,500 American miles for business class. I wanted the direct on Air New Zealand’s 787,
but no business class space was available and coach with United miles was the
same price as business with AA. Perth to
Cape Town, via JNB, was 85,000 United miles and good value. The other options
were via Asia and North Africa. Cape
Town to Denver was 100,000 AA miles for first class on British Airways via
London. This was the best value because
the ticket was only 25,000 more miles than London to Denver and I was in first
for an extra 12 hours.